Well, both the Bears and the Packers pulled off impressive wins on the road in Week 11, and so they enter Week 12 virtually tied atop the NFC North. And with the Vikings falling like a stone, it truly is a two-team race for our Division.
While sharing an identical record with Green Bay, the Bears have the edge on us by virtue of beating us head-to-head. Of course, we’ll be able to even that score on the last week of the season on the Frozen Tundra.
As you can see in the chart below, our roads ahead are also nearly identical. Both teams have 3 road games and 3 home games left. And both teams face 4 winning records and 2 losing records in the weeks that remain.
| Week | Packers (7-3) | Bears (7-3) |
| 12 | at Falcons (8-2) | Eagles (7-3) |
| 13 | 49ers (3-7) | at Lions (2-8) |
| 14 | at Lions (2-8) | Patriots (8-2) |
| 15 | at Patriots (8-2) | at Vikings (3-7) |
| 16 | Giants (6-4) | Jets (8-2) |
| 17 | Bears (7-3) | at Packers (7-3) |
| Records | (34-26) | (35-25) |
Week 12 is going to be a tremendous challenge for both of us. The Falcons and Eagles are both Division leaders. And they’re both NFC teams, which matters in terms of both tie-breakers and playoff seeding. Green Bay has to play the Falcons in Atlanta, while the Bears get to host the Eagles.
We’ll give more specific attention to the Week 12 match-ups later in the week. For now, just this about the horse race in the Division…
I sincerely believe that that Packers are better than the Bears -- better coach, better quarterback, better receivers. Defenses are both good. Chicago probably has the edge on special teams, though we seem to have improved somewhat in that area.
In any case, given my assumption that we are the better team, and given the fact that we have identical records and nearly identical schedules, I believe that the Packers will win the Division in the end. Accordingly, the head-to-head match-up with the Falcons is all the more important, for NFC playoff seeding and home field advantage are at stake.
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